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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I don't feel Irish the way those people feel Irish - Self Identity and Ancestry

Every March I think it's fun to wear green (or green and orange if I am feeling cantankerous) on St. Patrick's Day. I've always thought it was endearing the way the Irish are so Irish. It's not my holiday but I like to get in the spirit and join in the celebration.

This year it dawned on me - I am Irish. I do in fact have Irish ancestry. No matter, I still don't feel like it's my holiday. I don't feel Irish the way those people feel Irish. I never saw myself as one of those people who claim their Irishness publicly the way so many do. I guess, though I know it is wrong, that I thought you had to have recent Irish immigrant ancestors, or be at least half Irish to be one of those Irish. I understand that all it really takes is embracing your Irish side even if it is only one drop. The Irish are a very inclusive bunch. It's just me that's not connecting.

You're going to think this is a bit strange for a genealogist but I don't connect to any of my ancestral nationalities.

My mother's paternal line is all German. I grew up learning about German heritage and eating German inspired cuisine. My mom spoke regularly about her father attending a German-speaking school and how she was forced to learn German as a child. You think that would make me feel German, right? Nope, sorry, I don't feel any connection whatsoever to Germany or my German ancestors.

On my Dad's side, our immigrant ancestor came over from Wales in the mid-1700s. We also have a smattering of English and Scottish ancestors. Do I feel British or have a desire to sing Rule Britannia? Nope (as we say in New England), nada.

The strongest identity I feel is as an American but specifically as an American from the northeast. I feel connected with Pennsylvania, New York and New England. When I think of my heritage and my roots that's how I identify myself. I identify more with my farmers in New York, my furriers in Pittsburgh and my lawyers in Providence, Rhode Island than I do with any ancestor that came from across the pond.

I'm not sure what it means about my sense of self identity. I'm not sure if it's right or wrong. But I definitely know it's strong within me.

What about you? Can you identify with your ancestral nationalities? Can you call yourself Irish, French, German, Italian or other and feel it deep within your soul? Let me know what you think so I can figure out if I am a crazy lone wolf or not.

12 comments:

I don't think there is anything wrong with that. If it is your country, you should feel a connectivity; otherwise, it is interesting to learn about what their lifestyles were. I think for some it is just something to do. Good thoughts, I enjoyed the post.

It depends. It's not so much a feeling of ethnic identity as a sense of empathy with the folks I'm researching. Sure, when I'm researching one of my German immigrant g-g-grandfathers, I try to think about what he must have felt like, not knowing the language that everybody in upstate New York was speaking and then experiencing all the strange new foods and clothes. So, I try to imagine the steps he took to preserve the culture he knew as a boy, not so much because it was German, but because it was "familiar." I do the same thing when I'm researching the Irish side. A whole lot of "ethnic identity" is simply trying to find a way to maintain a sense of familiarity in a world filled with strangeness and strangers.

I do feel connected to my Norwegian roots, but I think that has a lot to do with my physical appearance (pale and Nordic) and the fact that I'm from Minnesota (where being Norwegian is kind of a "thing," and because my original surname was Norwegian). In fact, I'm probably identifying with being a Minnesota Norwegian, not a real one.

I identify much less with the other ethnicities that make up my heritage.

I feel Irish, but I haven't found that many in my ancestral search for them. I have English, Dutch, Scottish, Native American, and a few French and German, maybe I connect to the Irish because I was always asked if I was, I have red hair and green eyes, so I was always asked if I was Irish. I love pictures of Ireland, I love to hear Celtic Music and watch movies filmed in Ireland, but I can't even find my Irish ancestor I was told about in my red haired great grandpa's lineage, his mother was a Sullivan, but I can only trace them in Kentucky and know they lived in Virginia before 1790, same with the Powers and McCarty's {my red haired great grandma's ancestors}. Yes, something about Ireland that I love, and I always look for my Irish ancestors, but none of mine are recent Irish that immigrated, all I can find came to colonial America, however, my mom, sisters and my brother connect to our Native American heritage, again, have not found, but was always told to them that their grandma's great grandma was Native American, it was all their maternal lineage, so when my mom does mtDNA we will find out if it's true, but they all have dark hair, high cheekbones, and look like they could have Native American ancestors, they all feel the connection, but I don't as much as I feel the Irish, my husband has lots and lots of German ancestors that came to America during colonial times, but he does not feel a connection to the German. You would think I would connect more to my English ancestors on my dad's side, they all came to colonial America starting with the Mayflower and the Mary and John and many of the other ships, they all lived in colonial New England until my 2x great grandpa left Vermont in 1838 and came to Missouri, and later his wife came to Indiana. I love my New England history, but don't feel it in my soul as much as I do Ireland. I wrote a blog on St. Patrick's Day about always looking for my Irish ancestors and the ones that I had found.

You aren't alone. I've actually been thinking a lot about this same topic lately. All lines of my family have lived in the same state for 6-7 generations. I can pick almost any point in that state and find family that lived there, or near there, at some point. Yet those 150 years seem too brief to really call it my "ancestry" and to feel a connection or pride. But anything else beyond that seems too distant to connect to. Not to mention the fact that as I look at my immigrant ancestors, and their emigration countries, many of their families had only been in those countries for a couple generations, so then what nationality should I actually consider them, especially if I want to say that I am x% this and z% that? I definitely have a stronger desire to learn the history, the cultures, the customs etc. of those countries that I know my ancestors lived in, and more so those that did immigrate in the 1800's rather than the 1600s, but more and more I find myself more at ease claiming "American Mutt" ancestry than trying to connect with any other ancestral nationality.

I agree with you. I always say I'm 100% Yankee, but it isn't true. My grandmother came through Ellis Island from Yorkshire, England. I know that doesn't make for a diverse background, since all my Yankee stock were English, too. But I still think of myself as Yankee. Over the years I found a Scots ancestor who arrived in 1650, and I pushed that aside as a fluke and still thought "Yankee" since he was so long ago. And then I found a Hessian soldier had snuck into the family tree during the Revolution. Another fluke, I'm still Yankee, right? My last abberation was finding a Dutch stowaway to Salem, Massachusetts in 1820. No matter, I still call myself Yankee!

I might have a French last name, but I'm Polish through and through. My dad never spoke much about his family. What I know I learned on my own, so I feel a sense of distance, though I do feel closer to my French side since I started doing genealogy. I definately feel a connection with my mom's family. My grandmother was born in Poland and instilled in me a love for all things Polish. She is the one responsible for sparking my interest in genealogy, family history, and the past.

I have traced my ancestry to Ireland, England and Germany, but I don't identify with any of those countries. It might be due to my ancestors being early arrivals, mostly in the 1600s with the latest around the 1740s. So what do I identify as? A Southerner. Even my Palatine ancestors who came in through PA & MA were in South Carolina a generation later. Like others have said, you identify with your more recent and relatable ancestors.

I feel I'm a Californian more than anything, even American. I've been to all the countries my ancestors are from, visited their towns and learned about their cultures. But none of that was talked about when I grew up. We talked about the Dodgers.

I am paternally Irish. My uncle knows how to make champ and traditional haggis. I am greatly into my Irish heritage, know what counties my ancestors were known to inhabit, and have over 50 cd's of Celtic music. However, as I have delved more into my genealogy, even just on my father's side, I've found that we are a combination of everything. My Irish ancestor, who was descended from Flemings to begin with who came over in the Norman Invasion of Ireland, married an English woman. Their son married a woman whose father was Scottish and whose mother was French. The next generation son married a woman of English descent who was also part German. Within two generations of being born on American soil, we became the archetypal southernors. That was in the early 1700's. A few generations ago, we didn't even remember what we were until my great aunt and uncle did the research. My grandpa thought we were Dutch, which is just about the only Western European blood that we don't have. On my mom's side, I'm German and Lenape Indian. I still identify with my Irish side, but I identify with the other sides as well, more as markers. "Irish-American" is what my ancestor was. The "Irish" beginning merely denotes the cause of my ancestor becoming American, an insight into why. I think you are very right to identify most with your American roots. It is honorable to give mention to your ancestors who got you here, but it is also very honorable to value the land they strived so hard to get you to, and the life you have as an American. Your ancestors left for a reason, and they helped craft this New World. America is yours, my friend, as it was your ancestors'. The English are composed of everyone who went to England and assimilated, including Normans, Flemings, Danes, Britons, Angles, and Saxons. The French are composed of EVERYTHING. I've read that they don't even have ethnicity tick boxes in France, although that could be incorrect. It's all based upon culture. Your ancestors meant for you to be American. You honor them by your convictions.

I've always identified strongly with my German heritage -- my dad's side is 100% German and my mother's mostly so. But I also work sporadically on my mother's British lines (Scottish, English, and a mystery woman born in Ireland), and when I visited Scotland in 1994 I found myself delving deeply into that element of my heritage. I only wish I had a little Welsh, as my kids do, because that's the Celtic culture I'm attracted to most strongly :-)